VAILL 385 Character Design Fall 2014

Brett Helquist

This will not be interfereing with class Thursday - so class will continue as normal

Lecture in the Madsen Recital Hall Oct 16th, 11am

http://www.bretthelquist.com/

After graduating from college I left for New York City. My first job was an internship with an illustrator named Robert Neubecker. I began showing my portfolio whenever I had the chance. Slowly, very slowly the jobs began to trickle in. My first jobs were from newspapers and magazines. I did this type of work for about seven years. During this time I also had a day job as a graphic designer. I eventually decided to pursue some work in children’s books. The first book I had the chance to illustrate was “the Bad Beginning” by Lemony Snicket.

Other elements of style come as solutions to weaknesses. For example my use of line began when I had trouble controlling edges in my paintings. I also do most of my drawing from my imagination, I rarely use models, so I had to develop a way to draw that allowed me to do this.

Out of Class Assignment #7 - Aging a face

Using a head/face you have already designed, or one by another artist, following 5 age stages:

1) young (anywhere from infant, toddler, to young child)
2) teenager
3) Adult
4) Late adult
5) Old

goal: to maintain the integrity and personality of the character in different life stages

Post on the blog. Due Thursday at midnight

Kendall Hale

Aging a face

REMEMBER: Gravity acts on flesh
The face and body have anchor points where the flesh is secured to the bone (red areas). on the body it is often the bony joints, such as knee and ankle, or elbow and wrist. It is the areas in between these anchor points that are most affected by gravity and "sag"(blue areas)

Young skin is very full, firm and full of water. it can hold a firm shape without too much sag. As the body ages, the skin becomes thinner, dryer and more susceptible to the pull of gravity.

Gravity on the face - This is a really good Demo! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzhCPIIIQyo&playnext=1&list=PL6B3D34D3E6C0FEBC&feature=results_video

Tips for drawing ages: http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2011/04/few-more-tips-for-drawing-ages.html

Makeup – aging a face http://www.vfs.com/programs/makeup/what-you-will-learn/aging-and-character

Andrew loomis -

Tangled Reference

More Thoughts on Drawing Different Ages - from Mark Kennedy, and Part 2
Resources for drawing different ages

Assignment #7 - Expressions

In this assignment you will do 15 facial expressions for a human character
You may do a character that you have designed from this class
If you want to do another character not done in this class - check with me first

Parameters:

1) 15 heads
2) various angles and head tilts - not all the same (see examples below)
3) just head, neck and shoulders
4) one MUST be an extreme stretch and one MUST be an extreme squash (ex - yawn and pout)
5) expressions must be recognizable, readable and effective
6) character must be easily recognized as the same character from one expression to the next

please have drawings NUMBERED and posted by class on tuesday.

Due: Tuesday October 21st

Lackadaisical Cats - Expressions

http://www.lackadaisycats.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=333

Expression - Demos

Here are just a few,
I will keep looking and post if I find some really good ones.

Mark Crilley – This one is pretty good - 3 male expressions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJtloDZXGMI

Stephen Silver – real fast- I like how he talks about improvising from reference– also talkes about pose book - an artist reference rescourse you may be interested in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl3eWxAyqfo

Expressions

The Key to Expressions is showing the squash and stretch of the features:

A face, whether chewing, smiling, talking, or just showing a change of expression is alive with changing shapes in the cheeks, the lips, and the eyes.

Squash and Stretch is the only way, really, to show a change of attitude on a character's face and body to show that they're thinking and processing ideas and emotions. When you go from a Squash to a Stretch, or vice versa, you see a clear change of attitude that shows a change is happening within the character's mind.

It doesn't have to be an extreme change. Even very subtle shifts of a Squash to a Stretch (or vice versa) can say volumes. We all have seen an actor (or animated character) lift an eyebrow, or purse their lips, or just slump their shoulders, and immediately with that subtle change you know exactly what that character is thinking and feeling and it's more powerful than any more extreme change would be.

Mark Kennedy http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/2011/10/squash-and-stretch-part-one.html

Volumes remain the same:

The most important rule to squash and stretch is that, no matter how squashed or stretched out a particular object gets, its volume remains constant. If an object squashed down without its sides stretching, it would appear to shrink; if it stretched up without is sides squeezing in it would appear to grow.

When a person smiles, the shape of the face is determined by the movement of muscles underneath a layer of skin. During a smile, though the head seems to increase in size, with the widening of the mouth and jaw, it does not. The object is simply displacing its matter into the stretched shape. The most important rule to squash and stretch is that no matter how squashed or stretched out an object gets, its volume remains constant.

Watch for relationships between parts of the face:

When a face smiles broadly, the corners of the mouth push up into the cheeks. The cheeks squash and push up into the eyes, making the eyes squint, which brings down the eyebrows and stretches the forehead. When the face adopts a surprised expression, the mouth opens, stretching down the cheeks. The wide open eyes push the eyebrows up, squashing and wrinkling the forehead.